blogs: food for the brain, and the heart

Wow. This week as I was in front of the computer while nursing, I decided to branch out from my usual blogs and follow links to see where they would take me. The result surprised me: I don't think I have learned this much in one week EVER in my life. My brain--my poor, muddled, sleep-deprived brain feels like it has swelled with nourishing new information. I feel more lucid, more aware, more awake than before. I love the feeling--I have been so foggy brained for so long (this blog being my only creative brain-workout) and learning new things, and such a variety of things, has brought me clarity.

Here are just a FEW of the things I have been learning about (the ones I can remember right now--ha!):

--Britian shipped thousands of poor children to its colonies, esp. Australia--up until 1967!
--recent statistics of orphans worldwide
--Racism in connection with multi-race adoptions
--David Duke and his attempts to "modernize" the KKK
--modern medical uses for leaches
--Lesch-Nyhan syndrome, a genetic disorder that leads its suffers, mostly male, to severe self-mutilation
--reactive detatchment disorder (RAD)
--facial characteristics of Fetal Alchohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD)
--Screwworms (which can be found in California year round), bot flies and Furuncular myiasis

(wow, this is a pretty depressing/gross list so far . . . let me get on to some more positive)

--churches who are taking stances and putting their beliefs into practive, such as "The Radical Experiment" at Brook Hills Church and a church in Florida who made a public announcement that they would find adoptive homes for any child who was brought to them.
--people who are purposefully adopting HIV/AIDS kids--did you know HIV is considered a "managable" disease in the US now, and kids who get treatment can expect to live long, full lives?
--children rescued from sex-trafficing
--beautiful true story of God providing a way for a family who wanted to adopt
--Rebecca Walker--daughter of Alice Walker (The Color Purple)--whom I had not previously heard of, but who Time Magazine called "one of the fifty most influential leaders of her generation." That's my generation. And she has a blog.
--there are people in our world today who are chosing to live moneyless. Yes, live completely without using money.

My mind feels crazy-wide open!

But the best part of my virtual meanderings has been discovering several blogs that have challenged my ways of thinking about my role in this world, God's call for us to care for widows and orphans, and the beauties of homeschool. I have been challenged and encouraged and inspired in turn as I read what these amazing, joyful, self-sacrificing women are doing to better the world in purposeful, concrete, definitely hard but fruitful ways. I am making a new blogroll over on the sidebar, dedicated to these blogs. If you are ever feeling discouraged as a mom--esp. as a homeschool mom--I recommend checking out one of these blogs. The moms are doing amazing things, but make no pretenses of being "Supermoms" and their down-to-earth, honest writing has given me so much this week to nourish my spirit.

Time on the computer can be a phenomenal waste of time. I am working hard to fend off a rising addiction, which started when I was sick those three weeks and had no energy and just sat in front of the computer much of the time. Once I got well, I found it was hard to re-train myself to get up and moving, so I have been making conscious time-decisions about my computer use. But I feel no guilt whatsoever for all the blog reading I do while I am breast-feeding E--good for him, good for me.

And especially this week, REALLY good for me.